


Your Wild Years

by emissarystilinski



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Meeting the Parents, Post-Canon, Song fic, boys growing up, fluff central yall, moving in, yet another kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-08 23:46:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13469151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emissarystilinski/pseuds/emissarystilinski
Summary: Theresa raised her eyebrows like Dex didn’t even know the half of it, “This one was hell on wheels every summer he came home from school. Rarely saw him when the sun was up and-““T!” Derek practically pleaded, “Do we have to go into this now? I was… young.”She turned a skeptical face on him and Dex decided he liked this woman even though she made him a little nervous. There was no room for nonsense with her and there was something motherly in her New York accent.“You were wild.” She corrected Derek_Or the one where Dex moves in with Nursey, learns about Nursey's high school years, and finally meets the elusive Mr. Nurse.





	Your Wild Years

**Author's Note:**

> Title and inspiration thanks to "Your Wild Years" by The Menzingers

Dex was happy to be driving because if he wasn’t he would most likely be in a ball of anxiety on any available surface. He was currently driving to meet Derek Nurse’s parents. Officially.

Junior year of Samwell they’d both finally pulled their heads out of there asses and started being actual friends.

It may be because they were forced to share a one person room in the Haus and see each other at their most vulnerable but, Dex thinks it would have happened either way. Everything involving Nurse always felt… pre-planned, fated. It made his stomach turn to knots and his usually logical mind bend a little.

They were a year out of college, both living and working in Boston. Derek was working for an eclectic publishing group and Dex was working in the IT department at Boston U so that he could take their grad school classes at night. It had been a messy year, figuring out how to be themselves outside of the bubble of Samwell Men’s Hockey and how to be together while exploring adulthood.

In their final years of college they’d both gotten very good at being a “we” but also being their independent selves. They still fought and Dex knew they would as long as they were both still breathing but when graduation rolled around they both admitted that, yes they want to be their own people and build a life for themselves but, they wanted to tackle this world together until further notice.

Derek lived in a tiny apartment downtown while Dex roomed with Chowder about a fifteen minute drive away but, both of their leases were coming to an end and Dex found himself thinking that living with Derek Nurse again might not be so bad. Just minus the bunk beds.

So one snowy night in mid November, they’d been curled up on the couch watching something stupid when Dex breached the subject.

“I can’t meet for lunch tomorrow.” He’d lead up, trying to sound as casual as possible, “I have to go to the landlords office. My uh lease is up the end of the month.”

Derek had hummed in response, his head not lifting from Dex’s lap. His anxious mind wandered as he carded a hand carefully through Derek’s curls.

Dex always felt so privileged that Derek let him touch his hair. He knew it was a touchy thing, something Derek had had to explain to him one of those tense nights in the attic but he got it. So the fact that Derek allowed him this, trusted him and was comfortable with him had made Dex speak a little stronger.

“I was thinking instead of renewing,” He sighed, “I could maybe move in here?”

Derek went rigid and Dex’s hand was flying away from him. Slowly, the other man sat up, gray eyes wide and curious but not angry. Dex relaxed slightly when Derek laced their fingers together.

“Are you sure?” He’d prodded, “Are we ready for that kind of step?”

Dex had let out a breath of a laugh, “I mean this wouldn’t be the first time but I get what you mean. I mean half my clothes are here anyway. I have a toothbrush in the toothbrush holder and your extra key. I kind of already live here.”

Derek had hummed again, thoughtful this time and watched Dex’s pale thumb move across the back of his duskier hand.

“But I get what you mean.” Dex has assured him, “It is a step, a big one, but it’s one I can take, one I  _ want _ to take.”

Dex waited, let Derek take his time and think it through. How long it took Nursey to answer a single question was something that had infuriated him at first, how he’d dodge around questions if Dex pushed. Now he got that Derek needed a lot more time than him to think things through. He never like answering questions or responding to things half assed so sometimes it took him a second to really collect is thoughts.

“Okay.” Nursey whispered, eyes peering up at Dex through his ridiculously long eyelashes. He looked a little scared, like Dex might run away.

“Okay?” Dex could feel the goofy ass smile on his face but he didn’t care.

“Of course.” Derek murmured, bring their joined hands up to his mouth so he could run his lips over Dex’s knuckles, “'Ahbak, habibi.”

Dex didn’t speak a lick of Arabic but Nurse said that enough that he’d known what it meant. His heart was too big for his chest. All he could do was wrap a hand around the nape of Derek’s neck and pull him into a tender kiss.

He had pulled back enough to press their foreheads together, the two of them smiling, Nursey’s giddy laugh puffed over his lips.

“I love you too.”

It had been an incredible night, a night that Dex wouldn’t soon forget and he tried to call on the memory now. When Nurse had told him that his parents were insisting on meeting Dex when he’d told them Dex had a small heart attack. Nursey had assured him that he could tell them to back off but once he calmed down Dex knew it was time. He’d met Nrusey’s moms parent’s weekend Junior year but for some reason Mr. Nurse had been an enigma.

Dex had assumed he was simply absent but Nursey had confided that Mr. Nurse worked for an international law firm and often found himself jetting off at a moment’s notice. He and Mrs. Nurse had split up when Nursey was young but his biological parents were still on incredibly good terms, even after she had remarried.

This is how Dex found himself heading into New York City the week of Christmas. He and Nursey were to stay in his father’s guest room for three nights before Dex headed up to Maine to spend the holiday with his family. Derek had offered to come with him to break the news but Dex had insisted it would be better if he went it alone.

They were an hour outside of the city and given that it was nearly 2 AM, the roads were relatively clear despite the downpour. Clear for southern New York was not stand still traffic so Dex wasn’t able to weave in and out of lanes like he desperately wanted to. He peered over at Nursey, his socked feet propped up on the dash and his head against the window pane while he watched the freezing rain outside. Dex would never get over how beautiful he was. It used to infuriate him but now it made him preen slightly. That was his boyfriend.

“Take a picture,” Nursey murmured, his breath a clouding the window, “It’ll last longer.”

Dex rolled his eyes back to the road, “Would if I could, Nurse, would if I could.”

He was happy to pull into the parking spot outside of the Air BnB they booked for the night, cracking his neck and back as they got their duffel bags out of the trunk. They got the key out of the designated lock box as quickly as they could, fingers numb by the time they scrambled inside. The only thing they could do was change before they were both crashing into bed.

Dex knew he was exhausted. They’d both had to work today before getting right into the car after a quick dinner so the relatively short drive had felt like forever. So why couldn’t he get his mind to stop coming back to the next few days?

Nursey brought a hand to his chest, rubbing lightly, “I can hear you thinking from here, Pointdexter. It’s going to be fine, I promise.”

God Dex loved how he could read him. He wasn’t a guy that let himself be pinned down easily but he often relished in how well Nursey knew him, how he didn’t have to say anything, how Nursey just knew.

He leaned over to press a kiss to Nursey’s forehead, “I know. I’ll try to convince my brain.”

It took a few hours and the sound of Nursey’s light snores but eventually he slept. All too soon Nursey’s alarm was going off, jostling them both. After a few snoozes they reluctantly got out of bed, washing up and getting dressed.

“Breakfast?” Nursey offered and Dex gladly accepted, needing an hour or so to prepare himself.

They ended up in a diner on the Upper East side so it still managed to have a touch of money that always made Dex feel insignificant and Podunk in comparison.

They slid into a booth and Dex hadn’t realized it but he was the only one to pick up a menu.

“You’ve been here?” he questioned as the waitress, an older, buxom woman, came up to the booth.

“You have some nerve coming back here and not saying hello.” She teased and Dex was only allowed a moment of confusion before she was pulling Nursey out of the booth and into a hug.

“I figured you’d be working and I wanted to surprise you!” He mumbled into where she had him smooshed to her chest. When they pulled apart she smacked him upside the head.

“Ow!” He cried, dramatic as ever, “What was that for?”

“Not coming in sooner.” She said simply before her eyes were turned on Dex who could feel the redness in his ears, “And who might this be?”

Nursey hooked his ankle around Dex’s once he sat back down. “T, this is my boyfriend Dex. Dex, this is Teresa. She abused me for most of my high school years.”

“Nice to meet you,” Dex offered only a little awkwardly, hand outstretched. He only heard her suck her teeth once before he was pulled into a hug of his own.

“Nice to meet ya, Dex.” She said once she released him, patting his back firmly, “It’s not every day that Derek brings a fella in here so I have a feeling you deserve a hug.”

“T,” Nursey started, smirking and shaking his head.

“What!?” She cackled, hands out stretched, “It’s true! You never bring your… friends here. This is the first boyfriend I’ve met!”

“That so?” Dex offered, a playful smile pointed towards Nursey now that he had his bearings.

Theresa raised her eyebrows like Dex didn’t even know the half of it, “This one was hell on wheels every summer he came home from school. Rarely saw him when the sun was up and-“

“T!” Derek practically pleaded, “Do we have to go into this now? I was… young.”

She turned a skeptical face on him and Dex decided he liked this woman even though she made him a little nervous. There was no room for nonsense with her and there was something motherly in her New York accent.

“You were wild.” She corrected Derek, “But anyways, I’ll give you a minute to look at the menu, 

Dex, and grab yall some coffees. Your usual, Der?”

He nodded, “Thanks, T.”

They sat in silence as Dex looked over the extensive menu. Theresa brought their coffees and took his order before ruffling his hair and walking away. Derek was chuckling at the shocked look on his face.

“She gets comfortable fast.” He explained, smiling easily while he pour creamer into his coffee mug. He looked so at home here and Dex was happy to be a part of it.

“So you were wild, huh?” He prompted, taking a sip of his own coffee. It was strong and absolutely delectable. He tried not to moan at the taste.

“Good, right?” Derek said, nodding to Dex’s mug, “I knew you’d like their coffee.”

“Don’t dodge me, Derek Nurse.” Will shook his head. He knew Derek’s tactics and he wasn’t getting off the hook that easily.

Nursey sighed but in the fond way that came with remembering. “I was… kind of wild yeah. Summers were definitely my time to let loose after being in Andover all damn year. It wasn’t like Samwell, you know? Imagine me freshman year but times fifty.”

Dex grimaced. Nursey freshman year was overly quaff, overly confident, and often stoned out of his mind which meant overly chill.

“Yeah,” Nursey responded to his look, “Being one of the only brown kids in a rich ass boarding school in New England was… not ideal even though I made some great friends and got a swawesome education. I was still closeted and so that made it even worse. Everybody was watching me, scrutinizing me to see when I would fuck up. When they’d stopped that they started in on the whole ‘you are so awesome for a black dude,’ micro aggression shit.”

“That is…” Dex started but resigned himself to the truth, “Unsurprising but fucked up just the same.”

Nursey nodded, “Yeah so when I came home I let the fuck loose. I was out to all of the people in New York City other than my parents and I had an awesome fake I.D. so I went out constantly, probably in every borough but Queens cause what the fuck is in Queens anyway?”

It was question he knew Dex didn’t know the answer to therefore it was rhetorical so Dex just hummed.

Their food came right after and they lapsed into a comfortable silence while they ate. Dex kept looking at this older comfortable Nursey, perfectly trimmed beard and soft brown sweater hanging just right off of his broad shoulders, and tried to picture sixteen year old Nursey. He tried to picture Nursey stumbling in here drunk and Theresa taking care of him, maybe even holding a crumpled, teary eyed Nursey some nights. It wasn’t too hard to picture since he had a reference point of the Nursey he couldn’t stand, the fake Nursey but, it made his chest ache to imagine that young, gangly Nursey, so vulnerable and alone and angry.

“What?” Nursey mumbled through a mouth full of French toast. It should’ve been gross, and it was, but Dex couldn’t help but smile a little.

He saw Nursey’s blush before he was focusing on his French toast again.

Mr. Nurse’s brownstone was huge and three stories high, four if you counted the basement. Dex thought his eggs were going to come back up when they walked through the door but he was pleasantly surprised to be met with a shabby rich, worn in home. It wasn’t a museum of furniture you couldn’t sit on and things you couldn’t touch but a conglomeration of quality furniture and family pictures, candles and overflowing bookshelves. The immense comfort and sprawling space was the only give away to Mr. Nurse’s wealth.

Nursey was almost the spitting image of his father; he had Mr. Nurse’s soft gray eyes, warm complexion, and easy smile. His beard was a bit fuller than Nursey’s and salt and pepper speckled but he had all the warmth Nursey did. Suddenly Dex felt just a fraction less nervous.

“You must be William,” He greeted after Nursey let them in and gave his father a hug, “I’ve heard so very much about you.”

Dex nodded, “You can call me Dex. It’s wonderful to meet you Mr. Nurse.”

“No, please, call me Isaiah.” His handshake was even like Nursey’s, strong and warm. It made you want to give him all your money and hug him at the same time.

“Derek you wanna put your stuff upstairs while I get together some lunch?”

Nursey nodded and started towards the wood stairs, Dex followed after nodding to Mr. Nurse. The stairs even creaked when you walked up them and it struck Dex as an oddly old, broken down noise in this place.

Nursey room was twice the size of Dex’s childhood bedroom with a queen size bed and a window looking out onto the city. Dex stood there for a moment, watching the people below them run around like ants on a hill. It was the only reminder that they were in the city, the hustle and bustle just two floors below them.

“Are we in Manhattan?” Dex mused, watching a woman walk at least ten dogs of varying sizes down the street.

“Technically, we’re in Harlem.” Nursey answered into the skin below Dex’s ear, his closeness making the other man jump before he relaxed into Nursey’s chest. “How ya doin?”

Dex shrugged. He really didn’t know how he was doing. His nerves were still there but the out of place feeling, the feeling that made Dex aware each and every hole in his clothes was barely an undercurrent. The nerves were more due to being in his boyfriends fathers house, not being in his boyfriend’s rich father's house.

“I think I’m okay?” Dex asked as if Nursey could clarify it for him. He turned to face Nursey, “He’s nice.”

“He is.” Nursey nodded, searching Dex’s face for… Dex didn’t know.

Nursey kissed him lightly before moving to throw their bags into his closet. Dex wandered to the other end of the room where a desk and dresser sat. There were concert and poetry reading ticket stubs pinned to a bulletin board, pictures of a beardless Nursey looking so positively prepubescent it made Dex laugh to himself. Nursey was in a pair of loose fitting jeans and no shirt, shapes and symbols painted on his chest and face, his arms around two people Dex didn’t recognize. His smile was big, dopey, and probably a bit drunk. There Nursey was with Shitty, Andover snapbacks on both of their heads while they threw their fists up in the air in what must have been triumph because Dex could see a pong table in the background. Nursey with what Dex could tell was his two sisters because they looked so much like him, the two of them on either side of a disgruntled looking Nursey, each of them pinching an ample cheek.

“You done going down memory lane?” Nursey hooked his chin over Dex’s shoulder, “I’m hungry again.”

Dex was forever amazed at how much Nursey ate. “You’re insatiable.”

He could feel Nursey’s eyebrows waggle before he pressed a lingering, biting kiss to Dex’s shoulder. Dex batted him away even though it made him shiver.

“Quit it, your dad is right downstairs making us lunch.” He moved around Nursey to walk toward the door, hooking his pointer finger around Nurseys to drag him along. “Do you think he’s making something big?”

Nursey clomped down the steps behind him, “Meh it’s just wings and shit. He’ll probably put on the football game while we eat anyway. Football season is very serious in the Nurse household, Dexy.”

“That our families agree on.” Dex huffed, “There’s always a game on in my parent’s house.”

They padded into a kitchen that Bitty would happily die in, two fridges and deep gray, slate counters with cabinets over and under almost all of them, and a large island in the middle.

“You boys all settled?” Mr. Nurse asked when he heard them come in, pouring probably way too many chicken wings onto big serving plates.

“This house is incredible.” Dex complimented because it had to be said.

“It’s home.” Nursey responded, stealing a chip from an open bag on the island.

Mr. Nurse nodded in agreement, “We’ve had it forever. My family is from Harlem but we lived in a tiny little apartment up near the Bronx border. Once Derek’s mother and I had gotten married and I had enough money I bought this place. I wanted to make sure my kids had space and comfort I didn’t.”

Dex nodded in understanding, the purposefully homey feel making so much more sense now since Mr. Nurse had never had that.

“You can feel that here.” Dex offered, making Derek look up at him, “Comfort. Home.”

Mr. Nurse’s smile was dazzling when he turned it on Dex, the simple happiness of being understood all over his face. Dex could see Nursey’s small smile and he was powerless against the two of them, his own face splitting into a tentative grin.

“Grab the bowls, Derek.” Mr. Nurse told his son before pick up the two serving platters of chicken in both hands and heading through the archway into what Dex thought was supposed to be a dining room but was a den, kitchen nook combo. A small table just past the arch served as their buffet table, they were handed plates and the Falcons-Giants game was turned on.

After they piled their plates, Nursey directed Dex over to the big leather sofa in front of the TV. The material felt like butter and Dex could’ve fallen asleep right there if his stomach wasn’t so empty all of a sudden.

Mr. Nurse came back into the den and handed Nursey a beer, “Dex we’re fans of stouts and porters in this house, that okay with you? If not, I think I’ve got some lagers in the basement?”

Dex wasn’t picky when it came to beer seeing as his palette was just expanding past PBR this year.

“Whatever you guys are having is fine with me.” He said kind of awkwardly, knowing his mother would be glaring at him right now. He loved her, he really did, but Mrs. Pointdexter was the human embodiment of Catholic guilt, especially when it came to alcohol.

Mr. Nurse nodded and headed back into the kitchen and Nursey bumped his shoulder against Dex’s when he was out of earshot, “He’s always been pretty chill about alcohol but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“I’m good, thanks though.” Dex bumped back, appreciating Nursey giving him an out.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want a beer or that he felt pressured to take one, it was just such a 180 from his own home. The beer, the house, the relationship, all of it was so different compared to the Pointdexters. After Mr. Nurse came back with his own plate the two Nurse men fell into an easy conversation about life in Boston filled with chirping, some profanity, and a lot more detail than Dex would’ve given his parents. Dex ate and listened, answering any question that was thrown his way but was relatively silent. Nursey had such an easy, comradery with his father that Dex’s stomach twisted in what felt like envy. He’d always hidden a piece of himself away from his family, especially his dad, so their conversations never felt so authentic.

Once they finished, Nursey, surprisingly, took Dex and his fathers plates. It wasn’t till then that Dex realized he was maybe extremely tipsy. He looked down at what he thought was only his second beer and was shocked to see that it was 10% alcohol. No wonder he felt so warm and a little fuzzy around the edges.

“So,” Mr. Nurse prompted, laughing lightly at the way Dex jumped, “You’re moving in with my son?”

Dex gulped. He figured it was gunna happen eventually. “Yes, sir, if that’s alright.”

Isaiah laughed, surprising Dex again, “Of course that’s alright. This isn’t an intention speech, Will, I promise.”

Dex nodded, relaxing a little bit into the couch cushions.

“I just know that my son doesn’t do anything halfway.” He said seriously, eyes on Nursey back while he rinse dishes and put them into the dishwasher.

“Don’t I know it.” Dex snorted, looking fondly over at Nursey before looking back to Mr. Nurse.

“I remember him talking about you.” At that, Dex’s gut lurched. “You two definitely had a… rocky start to say the least.”

Dex nodded, frowning slightly, “To say the very least.”

“I remember talking to him when he came home that Christmas complaining about his partner on the ice. He said a lot of choice words I’m sure you already know.” He held a hand up when Dex opened his mouth to defend himself, “I had to explain to him, as someone else who didn’t grow up with all of this, that he needed to check himself on a few points.”

Dex was shocked to hear that he’d been defended when he really hadn’t deserved to be, “I mean I was being an ass. I thought that my family’s situation and struggles somehow equated to or was worse than his simply because he grew up wealthy and didn’t worry about what I worried about, when that really wasn’t right at all. Derek’s not- he’s not easy to read and I honestly was pretty ignorant to a lot of things too. So I thought I was seeing all of him when I was only seeing what he wanted me to see.”

Mr. Nurse looked almost impressed, “You could say the same thing for him. He definitely had some biases and judgments going into Samwell because of his time at Andover. I told him as much when he went off on a tangent about you.”

“Really?” Dex gaped, his reactions less stymied because of the buzz he had going.

“Yeah, really.” Mr. Nurse smirked that Nursey smirk and Dex shook his head. “He… went through a rough time there, especially as one of the few brown students. He was either an oddity or some kind of trophy. I understood and still understand why he was so jaded and judgmental after that but he had his growing to do as well.”

Dex nodded, thinking about the stories Nursey had just told him about his wild high school years, how he couldn’t be himself at Andover so he came home and was every part of himself he couldn’t be there. Dex had found that at Samwell, leaning into his queerness in the place that was not only accepting but encouraging.

“I could tell, even then, that he had a thing for you.” Mr. Nurse was smirking at him, knowing and wise. “I’m glad you two figured your shit out.”

Dex found himself laughing, the beers and surprisingly honest conversation relaxing him. “Yeah, I’m glad we did too. Nursey is- Derek’s one of the best parts of my life even if he can be the most difficult sometimes.”

He had to look away from Isaiah’s knowing eyes, knowing that his face was probably set in what Chowder called his “harlequin romance” look. His love for Nursey was an all encompassing, almost over stimulating feeling that had confused Dex when it started because he had never felt anything like it before. It simultaneously threw him off balance and recalibrated him.

“Dishes are done!” Nursey called, walking into the room with a beer and a suspicious look on his face. “What did you do to Dex?”

Mr. Nurse huffed a laugh at his son, ignoring him in favor of turning his head back to the TV.

Derek was looking at him, Dex could feel at and sure enough when he looked up at him, Derek was gazing right back with a small smile playing at his lips, eyes unbelievably soft. Derek knew coming here was difficult and terrifying for Dex and he was grateful for Nursey’s patience with him. Dex was just so happy that Nursey was clearly happy, happy that Nursey knew Dex was trying, happy that Mr. Nurse was the man he was, happy to get to know every part of Nursey he could.

He was just undeniably and shockingly happy.

 

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr x](www.brownbluesargent.tumblr.com)


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